Just Bursting.

Archive for October, 2013

My brother called me yesterday morning, but I didn’t pick up. Later that afternoon my dad called. I got scared. Did someone in our family get hurt? My mom is recovering from knee surgery. I hope everything is ok. I answer my dad’s call. His voice sounds weary. “Hey, how’s it going?”

“Ok,” I say

“Damn, those Giants just won their second game”

No bad news. Not much news in general. We chat. I say hi to my mom- still recuperating. My phone dies. I’m at the school library trying to get homework done. I plug in my phone to charge and instead of studying I log on to Facebook and start reading. I read this from Arya Imig:

“Lou Reed, I kid you not, popped into my head twice yesterday. Once was when writing to Michael Heald at Perfect Day Publishing. For obvious reasons, I thought about making the subject “such a Perfect Day”, which I did not end up doing. Later, while watching Rufus Wainwright, I thought about pictures of Lou from Rufus’ wedding last year. He didn’t look well. My first exposure to Lou Reed came when Terri Malaska, the library assistant at my high school, leant me a tape of The Velvet Underground’s Loaded one summer. Working backwards and forwards from there there are plenty of Lou Reed and VU songs and stories that I’ll never forget. One of the best has to be hearing Eric Robison talk about seeing Reed in Los Angeles the night the city went up in flames after the Rodney King verdict. Ask him about it this week. ”

That’s cool, I think. Nothing weird about that, but then I swallow hard when I read:

“71 was young but Lou lived lifetimes with the life he was given, and he leaves an indelible mark on culture”

I don’t finish the post. I fear that lump in my throat. I think about my brother’s call that morning. I immediately look up Lou online and there it is. He’s gone. I can’t believe it. I finish reading Arya’s message: “I feel for Laurie Anderson, I feel grateful I got to see John Cale last year and, I now that he’s gone, I think I can forgive Lou for working with Metallica. Not that he ever asked for anybody’s permission. You altered the course of infinite conversations with your art, Lou Reed, and will continue to do so. So long, Lou. Say hi to Andy, Nico, Sterling, and Vaclav. Good night. Thanks for everything.”